


Lost

by southoffebruary



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2013-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-05 01:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/southoffebruary/pseuds/southoffebruary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was staring at it like the path was magically going to jump off the page and light up for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published June 2006.

“We’re lost.”

Lost was quickly becoming an understatement. She was sure that if they tried to make it back to the main trail now, it would take them the best part of a week.

“Were not lost,” Mulder insisted as he turned the map in his hands around again. “Where’s your sense of adventure, Scully?”

She’d had enough adventure for one day. No, make that a lifetime. She was sick of traipsing around behind him through overgrown forest with god knows what kind of bugs biting at her. She just wanted to get back in the car and drive as far away from his so-called adventure as possible.

She’d been sitting on a moss covered rock for nearly twenty minutes now. Not that she was complaining; it felt like a soft mattress to her tired and aching body. She was more annoyed by the fact that Mulder had been turning that sorry excuse of a map around in his hands for the whole period that she’d been sitting there.

He was staring at it like the path was magically going to jump off the page and light up for them. And that only gave her more of an urge to snatch it off him and tear it up. The only thing stopping her was the realization that it probably was their only hope of getting out of the dense forest – eventually.

“How reliable is that map, Mulder?” she finally asked as she sipped her water. 

He remained silent as he again turned the map upside down, and that only made her assume that it was as reliable as she first thought. She would never trust information from the Lone Gunmen again. In fact, when she got back to DC, she was personally going to march into their hideout and make sure they never gave Mulder another map to an alleged alien spacecraft.

“I think we need to go this way,” he finally announced and pointed ahead.

“We’ve just come from there,” she replied with an annoyed sigh. “Unless your intention is to take us back to the main trail so we can get the hell out of here.”

“C’mon Scully,” he pouted. “Sense of adventure, remember?”

She really was starting to loathe those three words. He was lucky that in that moment she was too tired to reach for her gun, because if she heard him say that one more time she would have to kill him.

“Don’t you trust me?” he continued. 

“Mulder, it’s not a matter of trust,” she answered, her voice starting to rise slightly as she let her annoyance bubble over. “It’s a matter of us walking around in the forest for six hours without finding anything. I’m hungry, tired and I smell like pine trees and bug spray.”

His eyes fell to the ground and he nodded slightly. Then he moved to sit on the earth next to her. She wasn’t exactly sure if that meant they were going to give up this ridiculous search or if he was simply taking a break.

A few moments later, he silently offered her some sunflower seeds from his pocket. She really didn’t want to accept them; she knew it was his attempt at a peace offering and she wasn’t exactly in a forgiving mood. She wanted to stay mad at him for dragging her out here and away from the comfort of her apartment. But she figured it was better than starving to death, so she took some.

They had no provisions beside water, because Mulder, in his infinite wisdom, had decided to leave them in the car. He’d claimed that it would only take an hour to get to the site and she realized now that she shouldn’t have believed him. She should’ve known it was going to be a disaster the moment he asked her if she had seen his compass.

“Did we really come from that direction?” he finally asked.

“I thought you were supposed to have the best sense of direction out of the two of us?” she scoffed.

“That’s when I’m driving,” he replied. “The truth is I made a terrible Indian guide.”

She sighed. It was typical that now, when they were lost in the middle of nowhere, he chose to tell her that he’s a hopeless navigator. 

“Why don’t we just go home?” she suggested. She knew it was probably pointless; when had she ever been able to make him give up on a quest for little green men?

“It’s going to take us the rest of the day to find our way out of here.” She continued. “And don’t you think if this alleged craft was here we would have found it?”

He looked down at the ground thoughtfully as he broke the shell of another sunflower seed. She knew that look; he was either plotting an argument that would convince her to continue the journey or he was working on a way to tell her that he was going on without her. If he did go for the latter and ditch her in the middle of the forest she wouldn’t have to think twice about killing him.

“You’re right,” he finally said.

“What?” she questioned. She honestly wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly, or if her hunger was making her delirious. When, in all the years they’d been working together had he said those words? 

“You’re right,” he repeated. “There’s nothing out here. We should go home.”

“Finally,” she exclaimed as she took his map.

She was going to get them out of there and quickly. He could follow behind her this time. He could be the one to get branches slapped in his face and trip over the rocks she didn’t warn him about.

“Oh and Scully,” he said as he leaned over shoulder while she looked at the map. “You smell like strawberries, not bug spray.”

She waited until he wasn’t looking to let a smile spread across her face. At least now she could say there was something good about getting lost.


End file.
